revealed in a big way on the blogosphere on the eve of the debate. >> if i worked for mitt romney i would instruct him to bring it up. >> you would. >> bring it up to knock it down. to disavow it. in other words, romney, he had a really wonderful opportunity, remember when rush limbaugh said those hateful things about sandra fluke, that georgetown law student, he had a great opportunity to smack down the fanatical fringe. he didn't do it. it was a missed opportunity. doesn't mean romney agrees with the crazy things limbaugh said but he missed an opportunity to assert himself against the fringe and this is an opportunity for romney, if he's got any sense and he's a terribly bright guy, a very decent guy, but he's a bit of a coward where the right wing is concerned. i do hope, it would help romney, but he should stand up in that debate and raise it himself and disavow attacks from five years ago on the president that seem to me to be driven perhaps by race rather than economics. >> we'll see if more does come out in the next half hour or so. again, we'll continue it. gloria borger, pa

>>> this morning on "early today," mile high showdown as president obama and mitt romney prepare for tonight's crucial debate. our brand new poll numbers show where they stand. >>> midair mess. another incident of loose seats on an american airlines flight, and now the company says it knows why. >>> and shock value. there's a magician, david blaine. he goes high voltage in his blaine. he goes high voltage in his latest stunt. captions paid for by nbc-universal television >>> good morning. i'm lynn berry. today we begin with a high stakes debate. all eyes turn to denver for tonight's first presidential debate of the 2012 race, and a new nbc news wall street journal poll finds president obama is holding on to his national lead, but not by very much. 49% of likely voters favor the president while 46% prefer mitt romney. that's only a 3% edge for obama which is within the survey's margin of error, but when it comes to a poll of registered voters the president widens his lead over romney to 7 points, 51% to 44. and finally they say the nation is headed in the right direction. 40%. mea

. >> andrea: romney cannot play it safe. if he plays it safe, forget the next debate. >> eric: romney has to play it safe. there are five topics. the first three are the economy, the economy, the economy. great news for mitt romney. lay it out. >> bob: what would it be? >> eric: lower, across the board, 20% tax cuts across the board. closing loopholes. lay it out. turn to president obama. if he has a chance to say we know yours don't work. look at what is going on. household incomes are down $4,500 per household. net worth down 30%. gasoline prices doubled. i'd do it for three blocks. >> bob: you think romney ought to lay out what the deductions are? >> dana: no. >> eric: you know, well, whatever. sure, why not, why not say here, we'll post loopholes on xyz. that's fine. it won't hurt. >> greg: we end up talking about loopholes all the time. mitt will lose. there are huge issues here. i go back to benghazi. you go to high unemployment. there is serious -- >> dana: if you are going to talk about the economy, then certainly there will be a question tonight about the entitlement program.

on social security the kinds of voters that you are talking about, mr. romney, in this debate tonight, when you say government is paying too big a role in people's lives. that's a tricky one for him to walk out of. >> are the elderly moochers? he's going to have to answer that question. >> service members on disability? i mean same thing. >> coming on the heels of the romney campaign trying to use joe biden's biden-esque turn of phrase the middle class has been buried and you know, biden has walked that back, you know, is it an indictment of the president? look if you're going to fight for the ground on the middle class i don't know that joe biden is the person you want to be sparring against. >> he is by far the best middle class, working-class figure in this race. but to me, the hannity, drudge, obama thing, the ryan thing, i mean, really? this is all they got? i mean, i found the -- i found nothing that obama said in that speech objectionable or disagreeable, similarly, i find ryan's thing not -- i mean there's a sophisticated and legitimate argument to be made about, you k

for more of this. it is teed up to be a debate about big ideas. is mitt romney going to deliver? >> i am sure that part of the reason this video is out there, just the day before, is to give romney the opportunity to, perhaps, reference it when you talk about the role of government, when you talk about the economy, he's got some phrases he likes to use about more people being on welfare and all of that, so i would imagine we'll hear some of that. i actually disagree with something mark said. i think this was very much a play for the base. even our nbc news poll, 23% of people said, that 47% comment made them like mitt romney better. so there are people out there who agree with those comments. >> aren't they locked up already? that's a question -- >> no. because remember we've also seen reuters has had the polling and a lot of polling that show some low-income southern whites are thinking he's too richy rich. what it shows is he's still in trouble with his own base and now, you know, obviously the way the white house is trying to set this up, the president is going to talk about vision

governor romney. pressing him about specifics. >> the debate is not about winning. >> the opportunity for him to talk directly to the american people without the filter. telling them about his plan for the next four years. >> obama advisers are also spending. reminding voters that the president's day drop has interfered with practice sessions. both candidates know that every question comes. fumbles can be costly. >> after tonight's debate voters will get a chance to see them square off two more times. >>you can watch tonight debate streaming live on wgntv.com. meantime, a conservative news outlet has re-released video of a speech barack obama gave during his presidentical campaign in 2007. in the speech obama accuses the federal government of failing predominately minority victims of hurricane katrina. local communities were required to come up with matching funds for federal dollars. a policy that was waived for victims of 9-11 in new york and hurricane andrew in florida. >>where is your dollar? makes no sense. tells me that the people down in new orleans they do not care about as much.

this case is. >> wednesday, president obama and romney needed in their first debate. jim lehrer moderates from the university of denver. what and engage with our live debate preview at 7:00 p.m. eastern, followed by two ways to watch the debate at 9:00. on c-span, both candidates on- screen the entire debate. on c-span 2 bank, the multi camera version. following, your reactions, calls, e-mail, and tweets. following our coverage at c- span, c-span radio, and online at c-span.org. >> back to dallas. the texas senate debate, courtesy of wfaa. the senate seat is being vacated by kay bailey hutchison. [no audio] the texas senate debate getting underway shortly. ted cruz is a former solicitor general. paul sadler is a former member of the texas house. this is sent to us courtesy of wfaa tv. >> welcome back to, everyone, to ted cruz versus sadler. a lot of twittering going on, as the covered wide range of topics. let's get to some of them right here on the board. from david holmes -- i like this format. why won't you agree to more debates, cruz? up next, coming from joshua, sadler is a

peter. peter: hey dagen and connell. listen, mitt romney hopes these depates will help -- debates will help him overtake president obama and pull ahead here and use these debates to try to close the race with the american people. the new poll shows the race tightening, 49% for obama, 46% for romney, among likely voters, within the margin of error. there's a lot of debate over whether these debates can make a difference in these elections. looking in history, they have in in the past. in 1960 they helped john kennedy overtake richard nixon. 1980 helped reagan over take carter. 2000 helped bush overtake gore. romney was behind in 02 race for governor in massachusetts, he was trailing badly six weeks before the election. the campaign reorganized, romney pulled his advisors together. they decided on a new strategy which was to get tough and get specific and romney went on to win that 2002 race for governor in massachusetts. so we will see if he can repeat history here with these debates starting tonight. dagen and connell? connell: peter barnes reporting from denver for us. let's go to ron

what it might mean. >> president obama and governor romney debate tonight. the focus is on domestic policy. coverage begins at 7:00 eastern with a preview of the debate. we follow it with your reaction, phone calls, e-mail, heads tweets. looking at the university of denver, this is the media center were journalists will write their stories. president obama and governor romney will hold practice sessions today. this is only the first of three debates for the candidates and by agreement, it will focus on the economy and other domestic issues. president obama in getting the first question and mr. romney the last word. this is the media center at the university of denver where you see journalists getting ready. you'll go to the virginia colleges and universities to see what students are saying about our programming. >> governor romney has never been my position before or in my socioeconomic status and he doesn't have the same problems and issues that i do. he can't voice my concerns properly. hodgman governor romney has a lot of experience in business that can help the economy get back

drama tonight in denver. >> president obama and mitt romney facing off in the first of three debates. abc's karen travers is in denver with a preview. >> reporter: with president obama and mitt romney doing final debate preps, their runningmates hit the campaign trail. vice president biden was speaking about romney's economic plans when he said this -- >> how they can justify raising taxes on the middle-class that has been buried the last four years. >> reporter: republicans called it a stunning admission that the middle-class has been hurt by the obama administration's policies. congressman paul ryan pounced. >> of course the middle-class has been buried, buried by regulations, buried by taxes, buried by borrowing, they're being buried by the obama administration's economic failures. >> biden later tried to dig himself out. >> the middle class was buried by the policies of romney and the ryan supported. >> reporter: except for debate prep, a politics-free day for contenders. romney had lunch at chipotle. president obama paid a visit to the hoover dam. both have spent hours in debate

will pounce on the numbers that are out there. that will be the debate. lori: this is romney's last and final chance to convince us. do you agree? lou: not all the time is the first debate the most highly rated. most of the time, that is so. there will be a vice presidential debate. in 1984, it was the second debate between ronald reagan's that got a lot more attention. what happened is ronald reagan's stumbled badly in that first debate. some even said at that point he was too old to be president. he comes roaring back in the second debate with that famous line i will not hold my opponent youth and inexperience against him. hard to say. you know, how this plays out. i think it is very obvious. the pressure is on mitt romney to deliver the goods. he obviously had satisfied. he knows what he is talking about. the problem is, he has sounded very callous, very distant. the 47% think, however, you could argue it made him look indifferent. almost -- i do not think that was his argument. he has an initiative to say i can but i kind face on what will be a smaller government. does he have t

-span. >> president obama and mitt romney are wrapping up their preparations for their first debate. mr. romney in denver and president obama in henderson, nevada. we look at the c-span archival video from past presidential debates to determine whether presidential debates still matter. this hour-long program begins with an update from wall street journal correspondent laura meckler, with how the candidates are preparing for tomorrow night. >> laura meckler, as we look at the first of three presidential debates, this one taking place on the campus of the university of denver, this has been the debate season of expectation by the obama and romney campaigns. what has happened? >> the expectations are being set on two different levels. you have the obama and romney campaigns talking about how great the other guy is. the people in the obama camp cannot stop praising mitt romney. they do not like him in any other way. they think he is a brilliant debater. same on romney's side. they talk about how obama is a debate champion. and how he has set the standard. what they are trying to do is lowe

romney and the president wrapping up final debate practice yesterday, joe biden was in north carolina and paul ryan in iowa. they traded jabs over the middle class. >> vice president biden just today said that the middle class over the last four years has been buried. we agree. >> mitt romney is under pressure to give more details into both his tax reform proposal and plans for the middle class. yesterday, he finally offered up an idea saying in order to pay for his reform each taxpayer would have a limit on how much they could deduct. the number he threw out was $17,000 and compared that to a bucket saying you can take whatever deductions you want but once you hit $17,000 that's it. we heard his plan for undocumented immigrants. he would not revoke the temporary limitations adopted by the president but if elected there would be no more protections. we're coming back after the break. >> i wouldn't be where i am today if it wasn't for capella university. i go to work every day and know that i make a difference. when patients leave this office they have hope in their eyes. it make me fe

debate tomorrow is mr. ryan in these comments makes the same case romney was making when he made the devastating 47% remarks. in ryan's case, he doesn't use the 47%. he picks a different figure. for him the figure is 30%. you may remember ryan himself his response to that disastrous tape of mr. romney at the fundraiser was that romney was, quote, obviously inarticulate in making his point about the proportion of americans who are dependent on the government, victims and not worth his time. here's how paul ryan makes that same point. >> the point is we are reaching a fiscal tipping point. the moral tipping point is even worse. the moral tipping point is before too long we could become a society we were never ever intended to be. we could become a society where the net majority of americans are takers, not makers. another great think tank runs great numbers. i'm kind of a numbers guy. 20% of americans get 75% of their income from the federal government. they are dependent. another 20% of americans get 40% of their income from the federal government so they are reliant. today 70% of

to be appealed to. tomorrow night at the first presidential debate between president barack obama and romney will be underway in denver final preparations are being made for the first of three showdowns between them. this face-off will focus heavily on domestic policy and the economy. he called hoover dam breathtaking. the race is close with president obama leading romney by 3%. we have to get jobs again in this country. ohio senator robb portman vice- presidentvice president joe biden goofed up talking about taxes on the middle class. >> the middle class has been buried for the last four years. >> buried, we agree that means we need to stop digging by electing romney the next president of the united states. the republican ticket quick to adopt ryan's slogan. a suburban cop is in and the royal treatment in england and other european countries today they say he helped him win the ryder cup. we are in the car and i let him know don't worry about it i will get you there on time. pat roland's was the man behind the wheel and today he is being held a hero in europe. profiled on the bbc eve

the debate preps for president obama and mitt romney. tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern time the two will square off for the first time from the university of denver. governor romney got a lot of debating under his belt during the republican primaries of course, but he has rarely engaged in a one-on-one debate. president obama's staff is reportedly to keep the sometimes wordy president's answers brief and to the point. joining us is peter fin. good morning. wonderful to see you. our friend jim is away this week, so we are happy to welcome back jordan lieberman. good to see you again. so let's talk about it. the day is here. peter, i'll start with you. what's the feeling going into this debate? >> i think there's a lot of anxiety, allison. these things are very tense. i'm not sure we're going to see lincoln/douglas here tonight. this is a fairly loose format and it allows both candidates some time to go into longer answers and explain things. but as you point out, especially with president obama, i think they're trying to shorten his answers, keep them pointed and i think that they're read

and mitt romney, all part of the preparations for the first debate . in a few hours it will be the real thing and it is live in denver. >> security preparation is at the highest level in denver as the president and the man who hopes to take his job will be in the same room at the same time. something that rarely ever happens. we can show you inside of the university of denver. things are coming along as the staff set the stage for the event. the cand dates are expected to have walk throughs later on today. governor romney took to practicing with ohio senator rob portman. they stopped by chipolte for lunch. his opponents was at the hoover dam. he's been in a debate camp with john kerry. one thing to consider as we head in tonight. early voting is underway in some states and that raises the stakes. >> the first debate is a huge deal . some people can go out and vote the next day. in colorado, people can vote the next week before the other debates even occurred. if there is an immediate affect you will see it in the ballot box. >> the debate gets underway 9:00 eastern time . 7:00 denv

impact for romney and his campaign at a difficult time for them. now on the eve of the first presidential debate, if they were hoping to put that behind them, any hope of getting away from the issue has now been expunged because "the huffington post" tonight set off its own bells and whistles, flashing siren bomb shell by posting previously uncirculated video of paul ryan speaking less than a year ago. and what will effect the debate tomorrow is mr. ryan in these comments makes the same case romney was making when he made the devastating 47% remarks. in ryan's case, he doesn't use the 47%. he picks a different figure. for him the figure is 30%. you may remember ryan himself his response to that disastrous tape of mr. romney at the fundraiser was that romney was, quote, obviously inarticulate in making his point about the proportion of americans who are dependent on the government, victims and not worth his time. here's how paul ryan makes that same point. >> the point is we are reaching a fiscal tipping point. the moral tipping point is even worse. the moral tipping point is

expectations game that mitt romney is trying to control ahead of a really high-stakes debate. >> that's interesting. i don't mean to cast dispurgss on the journalist integrity, but i have noticed there have been a number of things that the ream campaign have wanted to inject into the campaign discussion that have been launched on the drudge report. so again, not casting dispurgss, but why do this the night before the debate? >> all of the discussion, all of the speculation in the political media is about how high the stakes are for mitt romney tomorrow night. so it changes the subject a little bit. it's a bright, shiny object. it diverts attention away from the huge expectations that he has. mitt romney's lost control pr an expectations perspective to reality. he's behind in the race. he has to have a good debate performance to begin to close the gap to get back in the race and to get ahead of president obama if he's to be elected president. >> so this is sort of a safe -- obviously the romney campaign is hoping they do very well. if they do well, they can pretend this story didn't happ

presidential debate. the showdown in denver between president obama and republican challenger mitt romney. you know mitt romney is looking for a new look and, of course, the president is trying to avoid the incumbent trap of trying to appear arrogant or underprepared. a lot on the line right now. >> a big moment in the campaig because there are so many eyes on this. it's the first of three debates between these two men. it's scheduled to last 90 minutes, and with just 33 days until the election some 60 million people are expected to tune in. former republican candidate rick santorum knows what it's like to go against mitt romney in a debate. we'll talk to him straight ahead, as well as the president's deputy campaign manager stephanie cutter. >>> also ahead, we brought you his incredible story last week, a man looking for a second chance to fulfill his dream after he suffered a debilitating injury in his one and only at-bat in the major leagues. last night, seven years later, adam greenberg finally got that chance. we'll show you how he did and talk to him about the big moment the morning afte

. >>> president obama and mitt romney have been mostly behind closed doors ahead of their debate tonight in denver. that's left their running mates to generate some fireworks, so to speak, on the campaign trail. vice president joe biden got things started with this comment about romney's economic plans. >> how they can justify raising taxes on the middle class that has been buried the last four years. >> vice president biden just today said that the middle class over the last four years has been, quote, buried. we agree! that means we need to stop digging by electing mitt romney as the next president of the united states. >>> biden later tried to dig himself out of the mess by explaining that the middle class had been buried by policies supported by the republicans. trying to, yeah, dig himself out of that line. >> joe's always -- he's never dull. love him or hate him, he's always saying something interesting. and headline-worthy, interesting. everyone talking about the video released last night as well. conservative website dug up a video of the president speaking to an audience back in 20

candidate rick santorum knows what it's like to go against mitt romney in a debate. we'll talk to him straight ahead, as well as the president's deputy campaign manager stephanie cutter. >>> also ahead, we brought you his incredible story last week, a man looking for a second chance to fulfill his dream after he suffered a debilitating injury in his one and only at-bat in the major leagues. last night, seven years later, adam greenberg finally got that chance. we'll show you how he did and talk to him about the big moment the morning after. >>> a bit later. you think politics can get ugly. try the "american idol" judging table. ugly moment during an "american idol" audition. nicki minaj apparently losing it over her fellow judge and fellow diva mariah carey. a lot of people saw this one coming. more on that story. >> we want to begin over at news desk. natalie morales is there. natalie, good morning. >> good morning, david and savannah. good morning, everyone. >>> american airlines is identifying what caused seats to come loose on two planes. the troubled carrier says a clamp that att

that. >> no, no, governor romney, he's a good debater. i'm just okay. but what i'm most concerned about is having a serious discussion about what we need to do to keep the country growing. >> a new nbc news "wall street journal" poll finds that nearly four in ten voters say that the upcoming debates will be either extremely or quite important to determining their vote for president. another 34% of voters polled say that the upcoming debates will be somewhat important to their votes, so the stakes are high tonight. president obama's lead in the nationwide polls is narrowing. meantime, romney has pulled even in florida. john harwood is in denver this morning and he will join us in just a few minutes with the other poll numbers and see just exactly how close it is. then we're going to try our own debates. at 6:30 eastern time, we have strategists from both sides of the aisle. democrat jimmy williams versus republican joe watkins. an hour later, former dnc chair and vermont governor howard dean is facing off against ed conard. irene rosenfeld, the ceo of mondolez international. the ma

debate in a three point -- structurally president obama, this part of romney's analysis is correct that he is a weak incumbent. he is not quite george bush's you look at the numbers in 2004 and he is vulnerable. i wonder if they could have done more. romney should give a major speech or do this or let out his agenda. i suspect the democrats are more solid in their support of president obama but less critical at least in public. it thought were a democrat that wish to welcome the outside i would have -- maybe he should be doing a little more. he is at some risk of looking like an incumbent staggering to victory by discrediting his opponent with 50.1% of the electorate and it might work. one will discredit the other. may be less for more running room than i would have expected. if you told me what happened i would have thought the numbers would be worse for romney. >> if you give us your name and organization? >> the financial times. i am curious what the predicted dynamic would be between as governor romney is elected with paul ryan as vice president and dealing with the house and o

. big debate between the president and his republican challenger, mitt romney. it wasn't that long ago that rick perry was one of the challengers for the republican nomination for president. i asked him what he thinks romney is going to do tonight and how he is going to do in tonight's debate. >> this president has to defend the debt that's being created and i think governor romney's going to do a very good job of one of growth, of one of allowing the states to be more engaged in policies. >> reporter: so, of course, he thinks romney is going to do good tonight. is he partisan, no doubt about that. we'll see how it plays out. >> david, i understand that you're still going to talk to kyle bass in a few minutes. what is top of questions in your mind? >> kyle is a big macro thinker. he also runs a hedge fund that makes stock picks like everybody else. we're also going to talk about, first off, the growing debt world we're going to talk about that and might talk about stock runs in about ten minutes from now. >> all right. thank you very much, david faber. >> "the wall street journal" that

to. mitt romney has said in one of the debates in his ideal future system, this super pacs would emerge, but there it be immediate disclosure so that people would know and be able to judge and track any concerns about corruption. my guess is that asserted the next place to go. nsh, the fpc is a particularly dysfunctional body. you know, there is really no good for is that we've had for a while, and also the disclosure mechanisms that they are improving someone to remain far behind what is possible today. it should be the case that as soon as they are cashing the check, there is no reason that many can't show up in a database is supposed to online for any group spending money and influence peers about be my guess of where you go next. the other political ring that will happen here is whatever the outcome of the election, democrats tend to make this a populist appeal. they intend to use part of the democratic narrative for years. we will help the working guy. i think obama signaling in the interview i have read that he would -- that he would pursue a constant commitment. basically